Category Archives: ebooks

If this were a book I could start at page one. If this were a book there would be print and maybe pictures on paper pages. I could pick it up, carry it to an armchair, flip through it and absently read my way through the beginning, … Read more »

Recently, novelist Ursula Le Guin suggested that publishers are ‘terrified by the idea of letting public libraries have their e-books.’ Publishers, she suggested, have jacked up the price of ebook licenses and set up draconian DRM systems to make it basically untenable for public libraries to freely … Read more »

We’re all fairly familiar with the joke by now, aren’t we? The one where the plumber visits the publisher’s house, fixes the sink, and the publisher says, ‘You’re cool if I just pay you in exposure, right?’ I sense that some of you aren’t laughing. If you’re … Read more »

Have you heard of ‘dancing the flip-flop’? Robin Sloan defines it as ‘the process of pushing a work of art or craft from the physical world to the digital world and back again’. Sloan’s argument is that the best artists and makers are those who can seamlessly … Read more »

Another year, another mountain (both real and virtual) of books to read. Checking out upcoming publications is a little like being in a candy store. Without wanting to gorge myself on literary lollies, I’ve put together a list of things I’m looking forward to reading this year, … Read more »

The only editors who haven’t heard about the rise of the ebook must be those who live and work on tiny islands. Specifically, islands that have no access to the internet, libraries, media, messages in bottles or telepathic individuals. The rise of the ebook has been, after … Read more »

Until this year, cookbooks had managed to evade all those doomsday prophecies about the death of the book. But in March, a Sydney Morning Herald article dared to ask the question on every worried bibliophile’s mind: is the cookbook dead? Have food blogs, cooking apps and ebooks … Read more »

With the ubiquity of smartphones and e-readers, and the wealth of content available to us – from podcasts to video on demand – it was inevitable that publishers would publish (and require) more from writers. To appease the busy, mobile and insatiable e-masses, following on from similar … Read more »

Our friends at Readings and SPUNC have together launched an ebookshop filled with titles from independent publishing houses including Black Inc., Text Publishing, Scribe Publications, Wakefield Press and many more. The ebooks purchased from the site can be read on any device with a browser, including iPads, … Read more »